The success of Guild’s first collection of music associated with the Festive Season ("Christmas Celebration" GLCD5185) has prompted this second compilation. Some of the carols were featured on the first CD, but due to their universal popularity they have been included again in completely new, appealing versions, arranged by some of the very best musicians working in Light Music.

Somehow Christmas isn’t the same without Festive Music, whether traditional carols or the popular melodies dreamed up by composers who know how to tear at our nostalgic heartstrings. Both categories can be found in abundance in this collection, which offers tasteful orchestral settings of some of the best known carols from various countries alongside the catchy novelties that make Christmas such a happy time of the year. In the hands of the top arrangers and orchestras assembled on this CD, there is every chance that the discerning listener will discover some new sounds that add a welcome vibrancy to old, familiar friends.

Four of the six conductors whose music was so warmly received last time are back with some new recordings. They have been joined by several other light orchestras, and Stanley Black is particularly welcome with some tracks from his 1955 Christmas LP which seems to have been unfairly half-forgotten today. Stanley (born Solomon Schwartz 1913-2002) had his first professional arrangement of a tune accepted in 1930, and during the rest of the decade the list of his employers reads like a Who’s Who of British jazz and dance music. By the time he joined Harry Roy in 1936 (where he teamed up with fellow pianist Norman Yarlett to form ‘Black and White’) he had also worked with Howard Jacobs, Joe Orlando, Lew Stone, Maurice Winnick and Teddy Joyce. More importantly, he had broadcast and recorded with some of the more distinguished American visitors to Britain, including Coleman Hawkins, who had first heard Black on late night radio shows with Stone’s band. Black remained closely involved with jazz during his four years with Harry Roy, although a trip to South America with the Roy band in 1937 introduced him to Latin American music which was to be an enduring passion for the rest of his life. After war service in the Royal Air Force, Black was kept busy with numerous broadcasts (he was conductor of the BBC Dance Orchestra from 1944-1952), films and a recording contract with Decca which resulted in many top selling albums prompting international concert tours. He received numerous awards, including the OBE in 1985, for his services to music. Stanley Black was a Life Fellow of the Institute of Arts and Letters, and Life President of the Celebrities Guild of Great Britain.

Another welcome addition to this collection is Frank (Francis Charles) Chacksfield (1914-1995), born in Battle, Sussex, on the south coast of England. He conducted one of the finest light orchestras in the world, and during his long recording career with Decca alone it is estimated that his albums sold more than 20 million copies. In total he made more than 150 long-playing albums which were released in many countries, especially in Europe, Japan and Australia as well as Britain and America. Frank’s professional musical career began shortly before World War 2, playing at various local venues, before Army service found him working at the Royal Army Service Corp’s Southern Command Entertainment’s Section at Salisbury, Wiltshire. Later he became staff arranger for "Stars In Battledress" at the War Office in London, and back in civilian life he soon became involved with various BBC Radio shows as arranger, composer and conductor; for a while he also worked as musical director of the Henry Hall and Geraldo orchestras. In April 1953 he formed a 40-piece orchestra with a large string section. His very first 78 recorded for Decca - Charlie Chaplin’s themes for his film "Limelight" - won him a Gold Disc through its big success in the USA. In Britain it earned him the New Musical Express Record of the Year award. His second 78 "Ebb Tide" became the first-ever British non-vocal disc to reach No. 1 in the American charts, providing a second Gold Disc. American juke-box operators, in a nation-wide poll, voted Chacksfield the most promising new orchestra of the year. A steady flow of long-playing records, plus regular broadcasts in many countries, ensured his continuing popularity and high public profile well into the 1970s. Although he was also an accomplished composer - his Candid Snap (GLCD 5156), Catalan Sunshine (GLCD 5161) and Prelude To A Memory (GLCD 5104) are on previous Guild CDs - he usually relied on some of the best arrangers such as Leon Young (1916-1991) and Roland Shaw (1920-2012) to work on his albums.

Zack Laurence (who plays Snowman’s Land) is a talented English pianist who trained at the Guildhall School of Music. He has been successful in writing for films and TV, and enjoyed a world-wide hit under the enigmatic pseudonym ‘Mr Bloe’.

Joyce Reynolds Cochrane (1908-1988) composed several popular melodies during the 1940s and 1950s, one of her biggest successes being Honey Child which enjoyed a vocal recording by Gracie Fields as well as an orchestral version arranged by Robert Farnon (on Guild GLCD5104). In 1950 her song You’re Only Dreaming was included in the Ealing film "Dance Hall" which featured the Ted Heath and Geraldo orchestras on screen.

Eric Winstone (born in London, 1915-1974) is included in this collection as the composer of Snow Ride. He was one of Britain’s leading dance band leaders, who in his younger days was a virtuoso piano-accordionist. He could also compose attractive light music, sometimes with a humorous twist – as in The Happy Hippo (on Guild GLCD5157).

Len Stevens (d. 1989 - his full name was Herbert Leonard Stevens) was a prolific British composer, contributing mood music to several different libraries, with a style that his admirers quickly grew to recognise. In every sense a ‘backroom boy’ of the music business, he learned his craft in the British dance bands of pre-war years. Many London publishers were keen to employ him, both for his own original works, and also to orchestrate new pieces by other writers, who were too busy (or not sufficiently capable) of doing a good job themselves. In common with so many of the talented musicians employed in the business, he could turn his hand to any kind of music that was needed, and he was also involved in the musical theatre. Holiday On Ice is his twentieth Guild appearance.

Richard "Billy" Vaughn (1919-1991), born in Glasgow, Kentucky, is featured again playing Christmas music with God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen. He began his career playing piano and singing baritone in the group ‘The Hilltoppers’, before joining Dot Records as musical director where he accompanied many of the label’s top singers. He became one of the most successful orchestra leaders during the rock’n’roll era, and from 1955 to 1970 he managed to get 36 titles into the USA Top 200 charts, including a million seller Melody Of Love which earned him a gold disc. In 1965 he began touring internationally with his band, achieving considerable popularity in Japan, Korea and Brazil. His 1958 Christmas LP for Dot Records, from which the track in this collection is taken, tastefully combined a small choir with the orchestra.

It is possible that Billy Vaughn may have surprised some of his usual fans with the restrained treatment of his Christmas melodies, given his reputation for recordings that were often more strident. But when Percy Faith (1908-1976) turned his attention to this repertoire there was no doubt that he would treat it with proper respect. Faith was born in Toronto, Canada, and originally he expected that his musical career would be as a concert pianist. But he injured his hands in a fire, which forced him to turn to composing, arranging and conducting. During the 1930s his programme "Music By Faith" was carried by the Mutual network in the USA, which prompted offers of work south of the border. He eventually succumbed in 1940, leaving Robert Farnon (previously his lead trumpeter) to conduct his Canadian orchestra. Unlike most of his contemporaries, Faith arranged all his own material, and his exciting and vibrant scores made his work stand out among the rest. Faith was always busy, whether working in the recording studios, radio, television or films. Today it is his numerous albums that have created a resurgence of interest in his work, thanks to their reissue on CD. More than once his record company commissioned him to produce superior albums for the Christmas market, and they remain highly collectable.

Like Percy Faith, George Miltiades Melachrino (1909-1965) was asked to conduct music for the Festive Season on several occasions. The LP era was the perfect vehicle for his inventive scores (including some by his right-hand man, William Hill-Bowen 1918-1964), although as early as 1950 his Christmas Fantasy (on two sides of an HMV 78 - reissued on Guild GLCD5138) had left his admirers hoping for more. Melachrino was one of the big names in British light music from the 1940s to the 1960s. Born in London, he became a professional musician, competent on clarinet, alto and tenor saxophone, violin and viola, and he worked with many British dance bands in the 1930s. He was also in demand as a singer, and can be heard on recordings with Carroll Gibbons and others. During World War 2 he became Musical Director of the Army Radio Unit, and his 50-piece ‘Orchestra in Khaki’ toured with the "Stars in Battledress" (two of their rare wartime recordings can be heard on GLCD5174). When the Allied Expeditionary Forces Programme of the BBC began broadcasting to Allied troops on 7 June 1944 (one day after D-Day), George Melachrino was featured conducting the British Band of the AEF; his colleagues were Glenn Miller and Robert Farnon (whose recordings can be heard on many Guild CDs) fronting the American and Canadian Bands. After the war Melachrino retained the finest elements of his service band to form the magnificent orchestra that went on to achieve worldwide fame, mainly through its superb long-playing record albums which sold in millions. Many tuneful pieces of light music flowed from his pen, and he developed a unique arranging style which was instantly recognisable. Melachrino built up a thriving entertainment organisation also involved in films, theatre and broadcasting and EMI used his talents extensively when stereo arrived.

For many years Arthur Fiedler (1894-1979) was always linked in the mind with The Boston ‘Pops’ Orchestra, although in Britain its records were released under the name Boston ‘Promenade’ Orchestra, which seemed more in keeping with its repertoire. It took quite a long while before the American term ‘Pops’ Orchestra finally gained acceptance outside the USA. Fiedler’s Austrian-born father played violin in the Boston Symphony Orchestra (from which the Boston ‘Pops’ is created for its lighter moments). Arthur became the eighteenth conductor of the ‘Pops’ in 1930, and remained at the helm until a heart attack following a performance on 5 May 1979 hastened his death two months later at the age of 84.

Choosing the right melodies to open and close collections such as this can often pose problems for compilers. On this occasion the choice was easy. Percy Faith’s dramatic version of Joy To The World makes a superb introduction, while William Hill-Bowen’s inspired arrangement of The First Noel provides the spectacular finale.

Geoff Leonard was born in Bristol. He spent much of his working career in banking but became an independent record producer in the early nineties, specialising in the works of John Barry and British TV theme compilations.

He also wrote liner notes for many soundtrack albums, including those by John Barry, Roy Budd, Ron Grainer, Maurice Jarre and Johnny Harris. He co-wrote two biographies of John Barry in 1998 and 2008, and is currently working on a biography of singer, actor, producer Adam Faith.

He joined the Internet Movie Data-base (www.imdb.com) as a data-manager in 2001 and looked after biographies, composers and the music-department, amongst other tasks. He retired after nine years loyal service in order to continue writing.